Network Acceleration

Current market reports and news articles from around the world all seem to be in agreement that mobile broadband usage is now growing faster than wireline. The latest smartphones connected to fast 3G networks provide compelling applications for users and are stimulating a dramatic uptake in the use of mobile‐broadband technology. The mass‐market adoption of wireless data continues to be spurred by network operators, as they introduce innovative new data services.

Many subscribers are now opting for fixed mobile substitution and are switching to mobile as their only form of connectivity. New portable devices such as smartbooks, netbooks and other internet devices are increasingly web‐centric, demanding continuous connectivity and downloading additional image data to fill their larger screens. Furthermore, mobile video streaming is in growing demand while “on the go” web browsing and document downloads are increasing to rates which may soon be mirroring that of wireline broadband.

One major problem faced now by network operators is the probable lack of wireless network capacity to address the rising demand. As the amount of spectrum available for broadband services is limited and as wireless networks inherently have far lower capacity than wireline networks, many users are beginning to witness the effects of network congestion, complaining more frequently of slow network operation. The bottom line is, unless something is done soon, a finite number of mobile users with bandwidth‐intensive applications will most likely consume all the available wireless network capacity.

The SolutionFortunately there are several waysin which operators can manage capacity issues, some of which will take more time than others to implement. These include offloading data onto other networks, more restrictive pricing plans, new spectrum use, and deployment of new technologies. One method available now for rapid deployment has been successfully implemented by ActivNetworks , a company specialized in the acceleration and compression of http streams for web traffic optimization.

ActivNetwork’s BoostEdge products accelerate and secure web applications. BoostEdge is hot pluggable and can be installed non‐intrusively in less than two hours, without any modification to the operator’s network nor applications, servers or end‐user mobile devices. In most customer‐tested cases, web data traffic is immediately cut by six‐fold and response time is improvedby three. In addition, BoostEdge ensures high server availability and improves load handling.

BoostEdge is essentially an application that speeds up response times, economizes bandwidth and secures web applications. It also helps optimize 3G mobile networks for telecom operators. Its patented "Plug'n Activ" technology allows rapid implementation, without infrastructure changes, and without service interruption, unlike the commonly used proxy mode.

BoostEdge comes in two product lines: the first optimizes the mobile flow (3G) and the second accelarates and secures web applications (Application Delivery Controller). BoostEdge is already accelerating business applications at over 30% of CAC 40 companies as well as large e‐commerce sites, banks, insurance and institutional online portals.

ActivNetworks chose Advantech’s NCP‐7560 Packetarium system for its ability to cost‐effectively scale up to 80 Gbps of packet handling in 4U of server rack mount space. The modularity of the system accepts up to eight multicore network processor boards with over 100cores handling core network traffic on multiple 10 gigabit and gigabit Ethernet ports.

“The scalability of the NCP‐7560 positions it ideally for OEMs designing high bandwidth systems in telecommunications and enterprise networking. It is ideal for applications in service provider networks for enhanced security, deep packet inspection, acceleration and subscriber‐based services.”